During the multimedia hype in the mid-'90s, Anicom used to be Korea's major producer of adult FMV games. After that fad was over, they kept themselves afloat with publishing games, for example Taff System's fishing series or TWIM's Tonko 4, but also a couple of foreign games like Monolith' Shogo: Mobile Armor Division or A.D Cop from Taiwan. (In April 1996 they revised the Han'geul spelling for the company name, that's why there's two variants in the headline.) What followed were a few years of quietness, with only some shady emulated games compilations released for most of 1997 and 1998.

In 2000, Anicom reemerged as a mobile games developer, after a couple of WAP games soon adopting the BREW technology from Qualcomm Incorporated1. Selected Anicom games were made available in the US (by Verizon) and Japan (KDD) in 20032, in 2004 also in Taiwan (BENQ)3. Some of their mobile games were playable in networked multiplayer4.

Games

The Secret Meeting in a Dream was the first in Anicom's line of interactive FMV games. The game's shows a surprising contempt for its user base: The player character is described as a loser in front of a computer, who gets sucked into cyber dream world by Hwang Jina, the mysterious daughter of the "Forebrain King"5. The "game" part is limited to a quiz, where Hwang Jina asks questions which are rewarded by video clips. The company claimed that the game contains 730 FMV clips6.

Quick Info:

Developer:

Anicom Software

Publisher:

Anicom Software

Genre:

Interactive Movie

The Secret Meeting In a Dream (IBM PC)

Black Cats (블랙캣츠) - IBM PC (July 1995)

Cover

Black Cats mixed up the standard FMV fare with elements of a traditional board game. According to the marketing text, the game has a "road movie" style plot. It starts with the Black Cats - who have connections to the Japanese Yakuza - stealing the two jewels "Blood of the Devil" and "Heart of the Earth" from the protagonist Park7. The goal of course is to get the gems back, and probably somehow woo the female thieves while doing so.

Quick Info:

Developer:

Anicom Software

Publisher:

Gameland

Genre:

Interactive MovieBoard Game

Black Cats (IBM PC)

Black Cats (IBM PC)

Black Cats (IBM PC)

Black Cats (IBM PC)

서울2010 (Seoul 2010) - IBM PC, Windows (January 1996)

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Seoul 2010 was the height of Anicom's FMV games. The videos look incredibly campy, especially the point&click shooting range scenes that are interspersed with the adventure / interactive movie parts. Anicom had also planned to publish a special non-adult version (once again, the extend of the "adult content" were women in lingerie), but gave that up after the toned-down version was rated 18 and up, anyway8.

Quick Info:

Developer:

Anicom Software

Publisher:

Anicom Software

Genre:

Interactive MovieAdventureAction

Seoul 2010 (IBM PC)

Seoul 2010 (IBM PC)

Seoul 2010 (IBM PC)

Seoul 2010 (IBM PC)

Seoul 2010 (IBM PC)

Seoul 2010 (IBM PC)

Seoul 2010 (IBM PC)

Seoul 2010 (IBM PC)

Seoul 2010 (IBM PC)

치카치카 삼바 (Chika Chika Samba) - Windows (December 5, 2000)

Hardware

A blatant rip-off of Sega's Samba de Amigo for Windows PCs. Compared to the Dreamcast or Arcade versions' sensor technology, the infrared is rather low-tech, although the station reportedly contained 16 of them9. Other than Samba de Amigo, however, there are only four directions to hold the maracas instead of six. The additional poses are in there, though. The game contains only 11 Songs remixed by professional DJ Han Yongjun10, but players could also build their own songs into the game11.